Akční / biografický / válečný, USA, 1959, 126 min.



On a large Navy frigate, an officer tells new seamen about the legacy of the man who commanded the first ship to carry the U.S. flag into a European port, John Paul Jones: In 1759, at age twelve, John, from a poor Scottish family, witnesses an English officer disperse townspeople playing the bagpipes, which are viewed as an instrument of war music. When the officer also insults the group by calling the kilt, forbidden by law, a "skirt," John hits the officer in the face with an egg. Desiring to be master of a ship, John goes to sea and by age seventeen is skilled in navigation. Seeking further experience, he serves on all manner of ships, including slavers, but decides that trafficking in slaves, while lucrative, is not for him. In 1773, John is master of a ship in the West Indies, but when a mutinous crew member dies from a cracked skull after John subdues him in a fight, the governor of Tobago suggests John change his name and leave. Complying, John adds the name "Jones" to his own and goes to Fredericksburg, Virginia to visit his brother William, who owns a business there. John learns from William's clerk and accountant, young Peter Wooley, that his brother died from an illness three months earlier. When John finds that two slave boys, Scipio and Cato, whom his brother planned to free, are in danger of being sold, John vows to see that they will be freed. Wooley suggests that John hire Patrick Henry, a friend of William's, as his lawyer. At a dance, when a British lieutenant haughtily condemns Colonial courage as being no better than the virtue of Colonial women, John slugs him. Afterward, the lieutenant's commanding officer, Capt. Pearson, apologizes for his conduct. When John attempts to flirt with socialite Dorothea Danders, whom Henry is courting, she warns against a "sudden and swift attack." Taken with Dorothea, John decides to stay in Virginia and buy a farm, but he does not take well to farm life. Dorothea's father, who is a member of the resistance with Henry, rejects John as a suitor because of their illustrious ancestors and John's questionable past. When the war begins, John joins the Continental Navy and, as second-in-command on a battleship in the Bahamas, presents a novel plan to use the Marines in a surprise attack on British troops in Nassau. After the Declaration of Independence is signed, John is assigned his first independent command. He learns that Tories have burned and destroyed his farm and carried off his servants to be sold in Jamaica. John's spirits are raised, however, when his Scottish friend, Duncan MacBean, playing the bagpipes, and Scipio and Cato, playing fife and drums, join Peter in welcoming John's ship. After sailing for Newfoundland, John captures eighteen ships, then gives supplies to Washington's army intended for the British commander General Burgoyne. After he learns that he no longer can command a ship because he is ranked low among captains, John goes to Valley Forge to deliver his resignation personally to General Washington. When John complains of favoritism and corruption, Washington, whose army suffers from hunger, mutiny and frostbite, castigates him. John then volunteers to serve in any capacity, and Washington sends him to France, hoping that a French alliance could break a possible blockade of the coasts. For his voyage, Washington suggests that John steal the British ship
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Režie: John Farrow
Herci: Robert Stack, Bette Davisová, Marisa Pavanová, Charles Coburn, Macdonald Carey, více...

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